HONK! Festival parade

The seventh annual HONK! Festival of Activist Street Bands was held in Somerville this weekend. More than 30 bands, including performers from far-flung locales such as Vancouver, British Columbia, and Rome, participated in Sunday's band parade from Davis Square to Harvard Square. Thousands lined the streets of Somerville and Cambridge to catch the bands in action.
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Sean Smyth / Boston.com correspondent

By 11:30 a.m. Sunday, a half-hour before the parade was to start, the staging area on Day Street, near Davis Square, was awash with bands practicing, displays being assembled, routines practiced one last time, and noise, lots of noise.
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Sean Smyth / Boston.com correspondent

Many of the bands and other performers had a message they wanted to impart along with the music, such as those expressed on these banners.
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Sean Smyth / Boston.com correspondent

The dance troupe Endangered Species with Lipstick displayed a cigar-chomping pig as its mascot.
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Sean Smyth / Boston.com correspondent

A member of the Northampton-based Expandable Brass Band practiced before the parade started.
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Sean Smyth / Boston.com correspondent

The parade kicked off a handful of minutes after noon, and at that point Davis Square was packed with spectators. Pictured, the lead marchers head toward Elm Street.
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Sean Smyth / Boston.com correspondent

The Pink Puffers Brass Band of Rome were at the head of the parade.
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Sean Smyth / Boston.com correspondent

A member of The Hill Stompers, based in Los Alamos, N.M., did a hula hoop routine while making her way down Elm Street.
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